Building a Better Scrap Trap

Ralph Gardner Jr. Checks Out How Pros Dispose of Food Waste

One of the more ill-advised purchases I've made in recent years was a composter. My understanding was that you dump your food scraps, wilted flowers, et cetera in the thing, which is shaped like a giant drum, and rotate it occasionally. Then wait a few months and—voilà!—the organic matter had magically turned into high-quality mulch that you could spread in your garden. Or something like that.

Things didn't go according to plan. The drum, about the size of a dresser, was virtually impossible to turn. So we didn't. After...